Then and now: A name change cost Bamberger's its regional flair

In the fall of 1987, as a lavish Hahne's department store was about to open at Garden State Plaza in Paramus, the company's senior vice president, Donald Ziccardi, was cautiously optimistic.

Then: The Bamberger's at Garden State Plaza was rebranded as a Macy's store in 1986.

He seemed confident in his store's proven mix of "quality, value and customer service," but Ziccardi expressed some wariness about expanding into the retail-dense North Jersey suburbs. As he told The Record at the time, "The competition is intense."

Now: Macy's at the Garden State Plaza.

And it was.

Within a year, Hahne & Co., based in Newark and a New Jersey institution since 1858, was no more.

Although Hahne's was merged into Lord & Taylor, its Paramus store, which had replaced the late, legendary Gimbels, eventually made way for Nordstrom.

During this same period, the Ohrbach's in the nearby Bergen Mall closed its doors, and the Fashion Center's B. Altman store underwent a major (but apparently unsuccessful) facelift. B. Altman closed one year later, in 1989.

They weren't the only casualties in the white-knuckle world of 1980s retail. As a photo caption noted in the Oct. 5, 1986, edition of The Record: "The maroon 28-foot sign over the main entrance of the Paramus Bamberger's was replaced yesterday. The New Jersey department store chain is taking the name of its parent firm, New York-based Macy's. All signs will be changed soon."

Bamberger's, founded in Newark in 1893 by Louis Bamberger, had stores in Morristown, Plainfield and Princeton, in addition to its Newark flagship.

Purchased by the R.H. Macy Co. in 1929, the chain began expanding to the suburbs in the late 1950s, with stores in Garden State Plaza and Wayne's Willowbrook Mall as well as Menlo Park, Monmouth, Cherry Hill and other locations in New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Bamberger's wasn't the "official" department store of New Jersey, but in the hearts of its loyal clientele, it was close enough.

Jo-Ann Mitchell of Woodland Park has fond memories of working at the Wayne Bamberger's during the 1980s. "All these years later," she says, "I'm still in touch with folks I worked there with. We had a restaurant called Louie B's that was considered very chic at the time. A great selection of small appliances. And the holiday displays were awesome … always tastefully done. Customers always commented on how nice the store looked."

Mitchell also recalls the store as one of the first to have its own charge cards. (Red and white, they featured the words "New Jersey's greatest store/One of America's finest.")

Rosanna Verrone-Morse of Hawthorne remembers her Bamberger's card as "the first credit card I ever had."

Another Hawthorne native, Michael Kahn, recalls making good use of his: "Bam's is where I bought all my penguin and alligator sports shirts."

Lynn Paret of Ridgefield Park had a special affection for the Newark store: "The Newark Bam's had the clearance basement and there were always cool things there. I needed a dress once for a wedding and, believe it or not, found a perfect one there for only $6! It was always worth the trip."

Carolyn Straka of Paramus went to work in the Garden State Plaza store in 1966, shortly after then-Gov. Richard J. Hughes signed a bill imposing a 3 percent sales tax.

"That June was crazy," Straka recalls, "if you can imagine all these mobs of people coming in to buy things before the sales tax began on July 1."

Judy Jeannin, fashion editor at The Record from 1962 to 2000, recalls the store having lots of promotions. "They would take over cruise ships and throw these phenomenal parties,'' she says. "At one, Duke Ellington performed. They'd serve caviar, foie gras and these amazing dinners. I had just come to New Jersey from Kansas and I had never been confronted by so much silverware."

Jeannin notes that when the store came to Paramus in the late 1950s, "it was a very big deal. Before the malls, these were asparagus fields. You had a lot of smaller, privately owned stores, but this was when it all started – the beginning of a new era. And, at the time, Bamberger's was THE big department store."

The Macy company's move to re-brand the Bamberger's stores as Macy's in 1986 was part of a consolidation effort that continued two years later, when Macy's New York and Macy's New Jersey formed their own division, Macy's Northeast.

Susan Littman-Westerfelt of Hewitt worked in the Nanuet Bamberger's before and during the transition. "Bamberger's was your family store, your grandparents' store, but it had seen its day," she says. "After the malls were enclosed, I think the specialty shops became more appealing. Folks loved Bamberger's because it was familiar. But then … it just happens. They wanted something else."

Then and now: A name change cost Bamberger's its regional flair

In the fall of 1987, as a lavish Hahne's department store was about to open at Garden State Plaza in Paramus, the company's senior vice president, Donald Ziccardi, was cautiously optimistic.

He seemed confident in his store's proven mix of "quality, value and customer service," but Ziccardi expressed some wariness about expanding into the retail-dense North Jersey suburbs. As he told The Record at the time, "The competition is intense."

Within a year, Hahne & Co., based in Newark and a New Jersey institution since 1858, was no more.

Although Hahne's was merged into Lord & Taylor, its Paramus store, which had replaced the late, legendary Gimbels, eventually made way for Nordstrom.

During this same period, the Ohrbach's in the nearby Bergen Mall closed its doors, and the Fashion Center's B. Altman store underwent a major (but apparently unsuccessful) facelift. B. Altman closed one year later, in 1989.

They weren't the only casualties in the white-knuckle world of 1980s retail. As a photo caption noted in the Oct. 5, 1986, edition of The Record: "The maroon 28-foot sign over the main entrance of the Paramus Bamberger's was replaced yesterday. The New Jersey department store chain is taking the name of its parent firm, New York-based Macy's. All signs will be changed soon."

Bamberger's, founded in Newark in 1893 by Louis Bamberger, had stores in Morristown, Plainfield and Princeton, in addition to its Newark flagship.

Purchased by the R.H. Macy Co. in 1929, the chain began expanding to the suburbs in the late 1950s, with stores in Garden State Plaza and Wayne's Willowbrook Mall as well as Menlo Park, Monmouth, Cherry Hill and other locations in New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Bamberger's wasn't the "official" department store of New Jersey, but in the hearts of its loyal clientele, it was close enough.

Jo-Ann Mitchell of Woodland Park has fond memories of working at the Wayne Bamberger's during the 1980s. "All these years later," she says, "I'm still in touch with folks I worked there with. We had a restaurant called Louie B's that was considered very chic at the time. A great selection of small appliances. And the holiday displays were awesome … always tastefully done. Customers always commented on how nice the store looked."

Mitchell also recalls the store as one of the first to have its own charge cards. (Red and white, they featured the words "New Jersey's greatest store/One of America's finest.")

Rosanna Verrone-Morse of Hawthorne remembers her Bamberger's card as "the first credit card I ever had."

Another Hawthorne native, Michael Kahn, recalls making good use of his: "Bam's is where I bought all my penguin and alligator sports shirts."

Lynn Paret of Ridgefield Park had a special affection for the Newark store: "The Newark Bam's had the clearance basement and there were always cool things there. I needed a dress once for a wedding and, believe it or not, found a perfect one there for only $6! It was always worth the trip."

Carolyn Straka of Paramus went to work in the Garden State Plaza store in 1966, shortly after then-Gov. Richard J. Hughes signed a bill imposing a 3 percent sales tax.

"That June was crazy," Straka recalls, "if you can imagine all these mobs of people coming in to buy things before the sales tax began on July 1."

Judy Jeannin, fashion editor at The Record from 1962 to 2000, recalls the store having lots of promotions. "They would take over cruise ships and throw these phenomenal parties,'' she says. "At one, Duke Ellington performed. They'd serve caviar, foie gras and these amazing dinners. I had just come to New Jersey from Kansas and I had never been confronted by so much silverware."

Jeannin notes that when the store came to Paramus in the late 1950s, "it was a very big deal. Before the malls, these were asparagus fields. You had a lot of smaller, privately owned stores, but this was when it all started – the beginning of a new era. And, at the time, Bamberger's was THE big department store."

The Macy company's move to re-brand the Bamberger's stores as Macy's in 1986 was part of a consolidation effort that continued two years later, when Macy's New York and Macy's New Jersey formed their own division, Macy's Northeast.

Susan Littman-Westerfelt of Hewitt worked in the Nanuet Bamberger's before and during the transition. "Bamberger's was your family store, your grandparents' store, but it had seen its day," she says. "After the malls were enclosed, I think the specialty shops became more appealing. Folks loved Bamberger's because it was familiar. But then … it just happens. They wanted something else."